by Louie Dimovski ·
Published November 21, 2018
· Updated November 21, 2018

Residing in Northern Finland with a wife and three daughters, Mika ‘Misfit’ Keränen, obtained his interest in computer programming when his parents bought him a Commodore VIC-20 and he started to learn BASIC at a young age. His first gaming effort would be a text adventure for that very same machine. Little would he have know then that he would be continuing with his ‘hobby’ game development career over 30 years later on.

Mika’s reputation as an innovative and talented 8-Bit programmer has grown in recent years. He has worked on titles such as Pilot Attack (ZX Spectrum), Mr. Angry Dude (C16), Dork Dave (C16), Fastboy and many other VIC-20 titles, but it is with his collaboration of recent The Future Was 8-Bit (TFW8B) titles – Pentagorat, Cheese & Onion and RodMan, that Mika has cemented his status within the Commodore gaming scene.

RodMan Video Show Case

With the recent release of the multi-format game RodMan, VITNO was keen to find a little more about its development and Mika was kind enough to allocate some time to answer some of our questions

VITNO: What was your inspiration behind the game design for RodMan?

Misfit:Actually Rod Hull (the man behind The Future Was 8 Bit) came up with the idea to do a 3 screen maze game. But I wanted something more, so I added bombs and few minor things. I always look to add something special to my games. This is the reason why I don’t make demakes or port old games for new platforms. I like to creating something more than straight forward clones.

VITNO: What inspired you to develop the game for 8 different systems?

Misfit:The Future Was 8 Bit asked if I could port my older games to new platforms. When I thought about this idea, I though it would be painful to do because I always used hardware specific features when creating my games. So I gave it a bit more thought and I came up with a plan to create a new platform independent 8-bit game where about 90% game code is platform independent C-code which would then make the process of adding support for new platform very easy.

So RodMän is an experimental game for me. I tried to test myself to see if I could create something 8-bit platform independent.

Biggest challenge was memory consumption because C16 version without memory expansion was my target. It’s the reason why the game is small and simple (no fancy effects or features). The formats selected for RodMän were based on the 8-bit machines which I personally have. I have so many ideas and own many different machines, but no time to create these games. I learned many things about Amstrad, MSX, Oric and Atari during the development of RodMän.

VITNO: How long did the development take for all 8 versions?

Misfit: Well.. this is a hobby. I didn’t count days. But main gameplay took few months. Support for new platform took few days. I think tape mastering was biggest challenge.

VITNO: Do you have a favourite version yourself?

Misfit:VIC-20 is the main platform that I developed RodMän for and I had a VIC when I was a kid. But MSX version is cool and colours are awesome.

VITNO: You’ve attracted the attention of the current home-brew Commodore development scene through your association with TFW8B. How did you start to work with the them?

Misfit:I developed Pentagorat for VIC-20 and it was almost finished. I sent a tweet and asked if somebody could make a physical release of it. TFW8B said maybe. Cooperation works between us, so it’s very easy to make new games and releases.

Pentagorat for Commodore VIC-20

VITNO: In addition to Pentagorat, perhaps your other most well known Vic 20 title is Cheese and Onion. A great platform game that seems to have come out at the same time as other new great platform games such as Sam’s Journey for C64 and Pet Rescue for Plus/4. What inspired you to make that game?

Misfit:I had an idea how to make a smooth scrolling routine for VIC-20 and I needed a project where I could use it. Originally, the working title for the game was ‘Rainbow Vomit’.

Cheese & Onion for Commodore VIC-20

VITNO: Do you include built in cheats or trainers into your games?

Misfit: No. Sometimes I add R&D cheats during development but official releases do not provide any cheats.

VITNO: How does it feel to see physical release of your games available for collectors to buy?

Misfit:It’s amazing. I’m a fan of physical releases. Digital download is too futuristic for me. I want to touch the product.

VITNO: So what is next? Any hints on the next game you are looking to develop?

Misfit: I have hmm.. two different secret projects. You will hear about them later.

..and I ported RodMän for new platforms.. bug fixes.. and new versions are coming soon.

VITNO would like to thank Mika for taking the time to answer a few of our questions. If you would like to find out more about Mika’s past and future gaming projects, you can following him on his own personal website.

Don’t forget that you can order your copy of RodMan directly from TFW8B.

Founder of RetroGamerNation youtube channel and regular contributor to Vintage Is The New Old and Retro Video Gamer blog sites. Strong supporter of the modern gaming scene for vintage personal computers. Specialising in the Commodore 64 scene and having a growing appreciation for the Amstrad CPC. If you would like your game or hardware reviewed, please get in touch with me via email.
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/retrogamernation
Email: retrogamernation@gmail.com